We begin the liturgy with Jesus’s triumphant
entry into Jerusalem. The citizens
welcome him with palm branches
and shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of
David.” It seems to be his finest hour,
the popular recognition of who he is as
the long-awaited Messiah. But we
know from elsewhere in the Gospels
that the popular idea of the Messiah
was not the role that Jesus was destined
to fill. All too soon the fickle
crowds will be turned by some of their
leaders to condemn this very person
they greet so enthusiastically. The disciples’
heads must have been spinning
at the sudden reversal of fortune.

Our own liturgy moves quickly from
the procession with palms into the
reading of the Passion. This is not a
dramatic recreation of Jesus’s entry into
Jerusalem so much as it is an acknowledgment
of our own shifting back and
forth between faith and doubt, certainty
and disbelief, triumph and tragedy.

Reflecting on this movement from
triumph to tragedy to the ultimate victory
during Holy Week can help us
understand the way the Paschal
Mystery manifests itself in our own
lives. As members of the body of
Christ, we, too, experience the death
and resurrection that Jesus did. We
have all had experiences of life changing
in the blink of an eye, events leaving
us gasping for breath and searching
for meaning.

We can begin to find that meaning in
the awareness that everything in our
lives—the heights of joy and triumph,
the depths of suffering and death—is
united with the life of Christ. He experienced
what we experience and transformed
it through his death and resurrection.
It doesn’t make it any easier
while we’re going through it, but it
does give us something to hang on to,
something that can sustain us in the
chaos.

St. Luke gives us many memorable
scenes unique to his account of the
Passion. Only from Luke do we hear
the story of the two thieves crucified
with Jesus, men who knew that they
deserved this punishment—and who
knew, too, that this man between them
did not. In the depths of his despair,
the one we know as Dismas, the good
thief, asks Jesus, “Remember me when
you enter into your kingdom.” Jesus
promises him, “This day you will be
with me in Paradise.” Luke also tells us
that Jesus says, “Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do.” We
might find comfort in these words
when we find ourselves acting out of
anger or frustration and hurting those
we love.

We celebrate these feasts every year
as a reminder that Jesus knows what
we’re going through because he went
through it before us. Enter into Holy
Week in a spirit of prayer. Pay attention
to the Scriptures. Often our own
problems are mirrored in the events of
Jesus’s Passion. Think about some of
the less-emphasized stations of the
cross (Jesus is rejected. Jesus falls for
the second time.) and reflect on how
you have experienced these events.

Jesus’s last words in Luke’s passion
are, “Father, into your hands I commend
my spirit.” These words are perhaps
our best response to the difficult
times in our lives. We are forever in
God’s hands. Knowing this in the
depths of our beings gives us all the
assurance we need. It doesn’t make the
bad times go away, but it does promise
that the darkness will not triumph.